When it comes to coffee, we like it black. Where others add cream and sugar, we are interested in the natural flavors of the roasted beans themselves. We could be considered snobs about it. We own our own french presses, we add beans to our homebrew beers, and we certainly like a nice coffee flavored dessert after dinner.

So when we find a place that not only has top notch coffee but an environment you want to relax in while enjoying it, we find that to be a pretty special thing. Introducing Diamonds Cafe on Central Ave. in NE Minneapolis.

We find ourselves making our way to NE more and more these days and one of our favorites stops to kill an hour is definitely Diamonds. The funky decor, the local artistry, the tiny nooks you can tuck yourself into are all things we like.

Gone are the needs to shout your coffee order over egregious music and the forceful nudge out the door so the next person can be served. When you cross the threshold into Diamonds, time slows down a bit.

It’s a culture around coffee that lacks the pretentiousness. With a deceiving number of rooms, Diamonds never feels crowded but it never feels empty. You’re constantly surrounded by a historical gravitational pull that your grandpa or grandma had a cup of coffee at the very table you’re sitting at–and that’s not a bad thing.

In fact the crowd is quite diverse. A college student or two, maybe. A person well past earning their pension, sure. A coexistence of all into a comfortable setting, absolutely.